CHRISLAND: MY DAUGHTER WAS NOT SICK - WHITNEY'S FATHER TELLS COURT

Read Time:7 Minute, 44 Second

By Aishat Momoh. O.

Mr. Adeyemi Michael Adeniran, Whitney Adeniran’s father and businessman, has testified before Justice Oyindamola Ogala, that his daughter, Whitney, is not ill.

Adeniran Whitney, is a 12-year-old student of Chrisland High School Opebi, who died on February 9, 2023, at Agege Stadium, according to a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja.

During his main cross-examination by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dr. Babajide Martins, Mr. Adeniran testified in court that his wife contacted him from work to come to Agege, the hospital where Whitney was transported after the incident at Agege Stadium.

He testified in the continuing trial of the school’s staff: Ademoye Adewale, Kuku Fatai, Belinda Amao, and Nwatu Victoria, who were charged with two counts by the state government.

The state had charged them with involuntary homicide, acting recklessly and negligently, and endangering her life.

Their actions were in violation of Sections 224 and 251 of the Lagos State Criminal Laws of 2015.

They all pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The father of the deceased in an emotional narrated that, “On the day of incident, February 9, my daughter left home in her usual way to school. It was the day for their inter-house sport at Agege Stadium. She left home very health, nothing was wrong with her.

“I have arrived my office, in the afternoon, the mother (my wife, Blessing Adeniran) called me that she was told at the stadium that Whitney slumped and she has been rushed to the hospital. She said she was at the stadium, she was informed after she has been taken to the hospital.

She said she was told by the principal that Whitney was already coming up before she was taking to the hospital . After about 10 minutes she called, that I should come to Agege Central Hospital.

” So immediately, I dropped everything I was doing , proceeded to Agege. It took me about 45 minutes to locate the place because it could not be found on Google map. Eventually when I arrived, I saw my wife by the road side, waved at me to stop . I got out of the car, I told my personal assistant ( P.A) to leave the car on so as to quickly pick her up.

He continue that his wife told him to go inside and pray for his daughter may be she will wake up. “I got inside, I saw her lifeless body on a table in a small room. In my mind, I thought she was given injection, may be she was sleeping. In that room, I saw some teachers, so I went close to my daughter, I raised her up to my body, shouted tapped her to wake up. I prayed and nothing happened. I shouted, I tapped her severally, nothing happened.
” I asked for the doctor of the facility standing in a small room like a reception. I knelt down before the woman (Doctor) to do whatever she can do to wake my daughter up. She responded that there is nothing she can do, that she was brought in dead. I stood up and went back to the room she was laid down , the nurse was still standing close to her. I asked the nurse what happened to her?

“The school nurse said she slumped. She said she was already dilated, she was not breathing anymore. She said that, she already die at the stadium before she was brought to the hospital. But she cannot pronounce her death, because she is not a medical doctor. So I said you only brought her to pronounce her dead. She said yes. After that, the doctor in charge of the clinic came to me and said they need to wrap her up so that microbe will not enter her body and begin to swell up.

“The doctor said she needed some money, so I gave her #8,000.00. She later came back and said she needed more money, I gave her #7000 at that point, I called some of my friend that leave close to that Agege Central Hospital. In a shot time, they all arrived, they asked if I have reported the case to the police officially. So, they left for police station. As soon as they left to police station, the doctor at the hospital came to me and said she would like to see me in private.

“The doctor told me that she will advice me not to waste time to burying my daughter, she really persuaded me. The principal there and the school nurse. She said I should make sure I burry her on time and not put her in morgue and not to say I want to conduct examination. At that point, I nearly agreed at a point, I don’t even know of any morgue.

“Prior to that day of the incident, we played together, she never complain, I remember when I came from Abuja, I even gave her soft drink. The following day, there was no complain of ill health. So I started telling telling myself why should I bury my daughter in a hurry without knowing what happen to her. She said the money and the pain I will go through in the process of autopsy. I told her what other pain is the worst to a death of a child and how much money will I spend to bring her back alive. I said I must get a closure of what happened.”

The father of the deceased went on to tell the court that, it was at that point he called his friend at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital ( LASUTH). ” That night, we took her body to LASUTH around 7 pm. The second day we got back to LASUTH, I met the pathologist, he advised that if we want to do autopsy, that we should write petition and coroner paper. So I left to Panti and I asked my lawyer to write the petition to Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) which de did.”

He also told court that he persuaded his wife to sleep since she has not been sleeping since incident happened. “As she was about to sleep, she hard noise from Whitney phone. She doesn’t know the password but her sister, Amaka knows the password. So she open the phone and on her school snap chat group called ‘Lagos House Wives.”

He told court that some of the student sent messages there that they know the school will not tell the parent the truth. He said one of the student wrote, “We are there and we saw what happened, she was electrocuted. Another one said, she saw Whitney on the iron rail close to the cotton candy machine that she want to buy. The wire of cotton candy busted and Whitney was shocked like mad, she fell on the ground, started foaming in her mouth and one stupid man came and started putting water on her.”

He said, “At the time, I focused on her black lips and tongue, which he saw when he arrived at the clinic where she was taken.”
As a result, the prosecution offers a printout of the snap conversation.

He further told the court how school management came for a condolence visit and urged the family not to go on social media.

He was, however, cross-examined by the defendant attorneys for the first and second defendants, Mrs. Bimpe Ajegbomogun and Chief Richard Ahonarougho (SAN).

According to the witness, his daughter was never sick. He stated he took his kid to their family hospital the day they contacted him from school to say she wasn’t feeling well.

“We used Inland hospital at Ogudu. We are able to see doctor and he prescribed some medication which I bought for her and she used as prescribed. My daughter complain of anxiety and Dr .Taye examined her, she said nothing was wrong with her that she only needed rest.

“My wife’s and I judiciously administered the drugs which was prescribed by the doctor and collected at the hospital pharmacy.”

He further told court that the cause of her death might have been heart attack but he did not believe because the autopsy result says otherwise and his suspicion was that it might have been an electrocution.

“This is because I have seen people electrocuted before.” He said he would be surprised that at the time Whitney fell, the cotton candy machine was not powered and that he would also, be surprised that Whitney had fallen five to six meters away from where the machine was placed.

Under cross-examination by the second defense counsel, Mr. Richard Ahonaruogho (SAN), the witness stated that he did not know the second defendant prior to the incident and that the only contact he had with him was when he was placed among delegations and the school’s management and staff came to pay him a condolence visit.

The witness went on to say that he didn’t know if his daughter left the house with her phone on the day of the event, but that he later found it in his room on February 11.

He testified in court that he wrote a paper authorizing her to participate in the inter-house sport.